Tennessee football’s top five punters in history

If you’re looking at leg power, nobody in Tennessee football history came close to what Trevor Daniel did. A walk-on, Daniel shocked the world by winning the starting job as a redshirt sophomore in 2015 away from Tommy Townsend, who was a highly touted recruit as a punter and would eventually transfer to the Florida Gators for an elite career.

However, this would be one decision that Butch Jones was immediately proven right on. Daniel immediately burst onto the scene, averaging 45.7 yards per punt his first year as a starter while pinning 25 of his 61 punts inside the 20-yard line and sending 22 of them beyond 50 yards.

The next year, even with a historically great offense that would give him a short field to punt, Daniel still averaged 44.6 yards per punt, and he sent 28 of his 70 punts inside the 20 yard line. He did have a drop in punts going beyond 50 yards, though, with only 21 that season. Still, he had a solid two years as a starter at that point.

As a senior, Daniel took advantage of the chance to flip the field with a horrifically bad offense. He averaged a record 47.5 yards per punt and sent 33 of his 72 punts beyond 50 yards. Because of that, Daniel is the all-time leader in punting average on Rocky Top. That has to count for something, even if the bad offense gave him an advantage.